This is a translation of a short extract from an interview with Evola - the only recording of him in Italian. The interview was conducted at his house by students from a group called Heliodromos in 1973. The transcription is available for purchase in Italian here. I have uploaded the interview with English subtitles here.
Q. What is the reason that the Roman king and pater familias cannot, by law, be prosecuted?
A. There is something Aristotle said - “He who makes the law is not subject to the law” – which is the cornerstone of every absolutism. If this goes well, the leader, although not being subject to a law, manages everything in an exemplary manner. If it goes poorly, he is a tyrant and there is a danger that he is gotten rid of, because, as Pareto rightly observed, it is not enough to be feared, one must also be respected, and almost venerated, to have a healthy regime.
Q. That is partly why the origin of decline is to be found in the fact that the reigns of kings no longer ‘went well’. That is, the institution has come to be in the hands of people who are unworthy of it, who have turned into tyrants.
A. But this is the misfortune which has been one of the levers of the subversion; usually the function is confused with the one who represents it. And the disrepute which is, or may be, rightly brought upon the person, is also brought upon the symbol. With the excuse that that person shouldn’t rule, they destroy the symbol. This has been a recurrent theme in all subversion – the global, and above all the European. While the just solution would be to raise, to put someone in that position who is equal to the task.